Bosnian Food Digest: Čavapi

Before coming to Bosnia, Megan and I had coffee with her husband's Bosnian guitar teacher, and he told us all about food and living in Sarajevo. So when we wandered around Baščaršija with Mattia after the second day of rehearsal, I was quite inclined to try one of the most famous kinds of Bosnian food: Čavapi (pronounced Che-vah-pee). It's a kind of street food that seems to be the Bosnian version of Turkish doner or a Greek gyro, since it is cheap and very popular. Čavapi consists of a pita filled with little sausages and a side of raw onion. The little sausages have a specific seasoning that is like nothing I have tasted before. I'd try to describe the flavoring here, but I can't accurately remember it. I found some čavapi seasoning in the grocery store the other day though, so it may be possible for me to make my own sometime, hehe.

When you order čavapi, you get to choose how many of the sausages you want. We all (except for vegetarian Megan) ordered 10, and that was almost too much to eat. It was basically our only real meal of the day though, so it worked out fine. I would suggest to order 5 if you don't want to feel like you're going to explode with čavapi goodness. Also when you order, I recommend that you ask for a side of kajmak (pronounced ki-mac where ki is like it is in kite). It is basically spreadable butter with bits of Bosnian goat cheese in it. The čavapi tends to be a little bit dry, so the kajmak helps give it more moisture. Plus, when did anybody ever go wrong with adding butter for flavor?

You don't have to look too far to find a place with ćavapi. Almost every place in Baščaršija has it, and we have found it shops in Mostar and Zenica as well. It's never on the menu at nicer sit-down restaurants though. The čavapi we had at this restaurant was only 6 KM, and that's in a rather touristy part of Sarajevo. There's nothing like a meal that will stay with you for at least 4 hours for only the equivalent of $4.